1. Field of the Invention
The present invention broadly relates to a coaxial connector and, more particularly, to a small coaxial connector used, for example, as a component part of a portable communication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A description will now be given of the construction of a conventional coaxial connector, with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.
Referring to FIG. 7, the conventional coaxial connector comprises a metallic housing 71, a socket 73, and a bushing 72. The housing 71 includes a cylindrical portion 74 which comes into contact with the outer conductor portion of a receptacle (not shown in FIG. 7), a cover 75 for covering an upper opening of the cylindrical portion 74, and a crimping portion 76 for gripping an outer conductor portion 78a of a coaxial cable 77 to grip the outer conductor portion 78a. The insulating bushing 72 is accommodated in the cylindrical portion 74 of the housing 71, and the socket 73 which comes into contact with the central conductor portion 78b of the receptacle is held by the bushing 72. The central conductor portion 78 of the coaxial cable 77 is connected to the socket 73.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the bushing 72 of FIG. 7, in which a socket 73 is fitted into a hole 80 formed in the bushing 72 at its central axis. As illustrated in FIG. 7, a plurality of pawls 79 extend radially outward from the socket 73, which engage the bushing 72 to prevent the socket 73 from being removed from the hole 80.
Such a conventional coaxial connector has the following problems. A cutout needs to be formed in the bushing 72 which is mounted into the housing 71 in order to insert the front end of the coaxial cable, as illustrated in FIG. 8. The coaxial cable must be mounted in the housing 71, with the cutout facing the direction of the extension of the coaxial cable. This, however, is difficult to accomplish because the bushing 72 tends to rotate around the axis.
Carelessness when fitting the socket 73 into the bushing 72 or when mounting a completed coaxial connector into the receptacle causes an abnormally high upward stress to be exerted onto the socket 73, displacing the socket 73 upward from the predetermined position. This results in a smaller distance between the socket 73 and the cover 75 of the housing 71. A smaller distance may lead to poor pressure resistance and characteristic impedance.
In addition, since the socket 73 projects below from the bottom face of the bushing 72, the front end of the socket 73 has a tendency to deform due to external forces exerted thereto during mounting of the coaxial connector into the receptacle or the like. This problem might be overcome by increasing the height of the bushing 72 so that the socket 73 does not protrude from the bottom face of the bushing 72. This, however, cannot be done because the lower portion of the bushing 72 is tapered to allow the cylindrical portion 74 of the housing 71 to be pressed inward in order to let the cylindrical portion 74 deform, as it comes into contact with the outer conductor portion of the receptacle to be mounted therein. Accordingly, when the height of the bushing 72 is increased, as mentioned above, the lower portion of the bushing 72 becomes thinner, thus making it difficult to form the bushing 72 when producing a smaller coaxial connector.